Welch Pushing For Bipartisan Effort To Reduce Budget Deficit

Congressman Peter Welch says he's convinced
that the only practical way to reduce the federal debt is to have shared
sacrifice from both Democrats and Republicans.

The problem right now,
according to Welch, is that leaders of both political parties don't want to
have to make difficult budget choices. Welch says he's working with
a number of his colleagues to put together a package that includes budget cuts
and new tax revenue.

A key part of the plan
extends the so-called Bush tax cuts but only to people who make less than $250,000
a year. "The ideal is to do what I
think average Vermonters knows needs to be done and that is to approach this
with everything on the table," says Welch. "Right now the only way that we're
going to get to significant debt reduction without harming the economy is to
have revenues be part of it and I think letting the Bush tax cuts for the upper
income folks around 250, let those expire. Number two, the Pentagon has to be
part of the contribution to debt reduction."

And Welch says domestic
spending cuts will also have to be part of the package. "The third area where Democrats need to put on the
green eyeshade is on domestic discretionary spending and we have to be
aggressive about reforms that will bring down the cost of health care," says
Welch. "So the only way for us to get to where we need to be is an all on the
table approach."

Welch says members of
Congress need to remember that a number of past presidents have used this
balanced approach to strengthen the national economy. "President Clinton -- when we
had 20 million jobs created -- that all happened after there was a balanced
approach. By a one vote margin the Congress increased revenues and they reduced
spending. President Reagan actually after his tax cuts when the deficit started
going up, he increased revenues," says Welch. "So it's an approach that's
worked for Republican presidents and Democratic presidents."

Welch says another top
economic priority is to extend the current interest rate for student loans. If
Congress fails to act on the issue, those rates will double on July 1.